MEANING: noun: The idea that gods are based on historical heroes whose stories became exaggerated in retelling.

ETYMOLOGY: After Euhemerus, a fourth-century BCE Greek writer, who proposed that the gods of mythology were based on real heroes whose accounts became exaggerated with time. Earliest documented use: 1846.__________________________

EUPHEMERISM - the idea that you should sanitize the name of anything earthy before you utter it

MEANING: noun: Someone who is an equal match for another. Typically used in the expression “to give a Roland for an Oliver” meaning “to give as good as one gets” (tit for tat).

ETYMOLOGY: After Roland, the legendary hero of the 11/12th century epic poem “Chanson de Roland” (Song of Roland). His tale was inspired by Charlemagne’s nephew and military leader. Oliver was friends with Roland and his equal. They fought each other but neither won. Earliest documented use: 1525. A related word is rounceval.___________________________

OROLAND - what the Spaniards thought the New World was

GOLAND - communication from a hostile fighter intercept aircraft

ROMLAND - where all good memory chips go after they've given up the ghost...

LATINUDINARIAN - fond of images of unclad women painted by Spaniards, which are uncommon due to the Church's disapproval; still there are Goya's Naked Maja,, and works by Velazquez and Picasso and others

LA TITUA IN ARIAN' - a recently-discovered Mozart opera, never yet performed

ESMESIS - when molecules of a solvent pass through a semipermeable membrane from a more concentrated solution into a less concentrated one, thereby increasing the disparity of concentrations on the two sides of the membrane; the opposite of OSMOSIS (see also Maxwell's Demon)

ETYMOLOGY: Of uncertain origin, perhaps an alteration of snallygaster, a mythical creature said to prey on poultry and children, possibly from Pennsylvania Dutch schnelle geeschter, from German schnell (quick) + Geist (spirit). Earliest documented use: 1846.

NOTES: According to a Georgia editor, “A snollygoster is a fellow who wants office, regardless of party, platform, or principles, and who, whenever he wins, gets there by the sheer force of monumental talknophical assumnacy.”_______________________

'S NOLLY-GO-STIR - when the lawyer says you're pleading nolo contendere and the best you can hope for is a jail sentence

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